Today, the development within the papermaking industry is focused on reducing the grammage of cellulosic products such as board products while increasing or substantially maintaining their further properties including strength properties.
WO 00/14333 relates to a method in which latex is used as a binder in the bulk layer to improve strength properties. However, WO 00/14333 suffers from high amounts of chemicals needed as well as problems related to the application of the latex binder. As an example, if latex is added to the wet end, retention problems of the latex on the fibers may cause deposit problems as well as disturbance of the wet end chemistry balance. Application problems may also occur if latex were added to already formed paper or board layers using existing equipment. Latex may also result in repulpability problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,649 discloses a seed-based enhanced fiber additive (EFA) derived from non-wood which may be used in papermaking. U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,649 states that EFA used as a fiber replacement material can maintain or increase paper strength properties in applications whereby the basis weight of the paper is decreased.
One object of the instant invention is to provide a new process of producing a cellulosic product, especially a single layer cellulosic product, substantially maintaining and/or increasing its properties including strength properties such as tensile strength while using a smaller quantity of cellulosic material so as to reduce the grammage of the formed cellulosic sheets. Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a cellulosic product, especially a single layer cellulosic product, in which at least one property of the cellulosic product including tensile strength, Z-strength, and/or other strength is improved or substantially maintained while the bending resistance can be substantially maintained or increased. A further object of the instant invention is to provide a composition which may be used as a premix to provide such cellulosic product.